148 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
them were little blue and snowy herons, with some white egrets, Louisiana 
herons, and black-crowned night herons. When quite close to the 
breeding-grounds I climbed a tall gum tree, and being partially screened 
by the thick foliage was able, unobserved by the birds, to survey the 
scene at leisure. The frail nests of twigs were placed in buttonwood 
bushes and willow trees, in and around a little pond in the hummock. 
There were but few young ; most of the nests contained three to five 
blue eggs. 
Three years later I again visited the heronry at Horse Hummock, 
found the old gum, and climbed among its branches. But the scene had 
changed. Not a heron was visible. I discharged my revolver, but the 
answering echoes and the tapping of a woodpecker were the only 
response. The call had come from Northern cities for greater quantities 
of heron plumes for millinery’. The plume-hunter had discovered the 
colony, and a few shattered nests were all that was left to tell of the once 
populous colony. The few surviving tenants, if there were any, had fled 
in terror to the recesses of wilder swamps. Wearily I descended from 
the trees to find among the leaves and mould the crumbling bones of 
slaughtered birds. 
A few miles north of Waldo, in the flat pine region, our party came 
one day upon a little swamp, where we had been told herons breed in 
numbers. Upon approaching the place the screams of young birds 
reached our ears. The cause of this soon became apparent by the 
buzzing of green flies and the heaps of dead and bleeding. The smoulder- 
ing embers of a camp-fire bore witness to the recent presence of the 
plume-hunter. Under a bunch of grass a dead heron was discovered, 
from whose back the plumes had not been torn. The ground was still 
moist with its blood, showing that death had not long before taken place. 
The dirt had been beaten smooth with its wings ; its neck was arched, 
the feathers on its head were raised, and its bill was buried in the blood- 
clotted feathers of its breast, where a gaping wound showed that the 
leaden missile had struck. It was an awful picture of pain ; sorely 
wounded this heron had crawled away, and after enduring hours of 
agony had died the victim of a foolish fashion. Young herons had been 
left by scores in the nests, to perish from exposure and starx-ation. 
These little sufferers, too weak to rise, reached their heads over the nest 
and faintly called for the food which the dead mother could never bring. 
It is bad to see such sights from any cause, but when all this is done 
merely to gratify fashionable women’s vanity, it becomes still worse. 
These are but instances of the destruction of bird-life all over the State. 
Unless something is done to stop this awful slaughter, it is only a 
question of a few years before the herons, not only of Florida, but of 
the whole South, will be exterminated. 
Women who know of the cruelty necessary to procure the feathers 
they wear on their hats should stop wearing them, and exert their 
influence to make other women see how cruel and wicked they are. 
May God’s blessing rest with all who strive against this sin ! 
The Hon. J. Scott-Montagu, M.P., said that he felt the want 
of education in Natural Science was a serious one, and that we 
should devote our energies to the education of the young. In 
these days of high pressure it would be better if we had a less 
complex form of instruction and taught more about nature. 
Lectures such as have been given by the society on bird life 
ought to be given in all schools, and some facility might be 
afforded for this class of study also at the Universities, where at 
present the student has no opportunity of studying nature unless 
